The power adapter is an electronic apparatus used frequently in our daily life. Taking an adapter, a power adapter or a charger of an electric appliance as an example, it is generally employed for rectifying and converting the external AC power into the DC power, so as to supply the required power to the electric appliance, such as a notebook, or charge the charging battery.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which illustrates a schematic view of a conventional power adapter. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional power adapter includes a metal extrusion housing 11, a first side plate 12, a second side plate 13, a power input element 14 and a power output element 15. The metal extrusion housing 11, the first side plate 12 and the second side plate 13 can be assembled by means of screws, and after assembling, they can provide a closed space for mounting a printed circuit board 16. Moreover, the first side plate 12 further includes a fixing hole 121 for mounting the power input element 14, wherein the power input element 14 is generally a socket which can be connected to the printed circuit board 16 through one end thereof and connected to a connector 171 of an external power line 17 through the other end thereof for inputting an external AC power to the printed circuit board 16. In addition, the power output element 15 can be mounted on the second side plate 13, wherein the power output element 15 is generally a power line to provide a rectified and converted direct current from the power adapter to the information appliance (not shown) for a directly use or charging the rechargeable battery.
Please further refer to FIG. 1. The first side plate 12, besides the fixing hole 121, further includes plural tap holes 122, and the lug of the power input element 14 further includes plural perforations 141 corresponding to plural tap holes 122. Therefore, when the power input element 14 is assembled in the fixing hole 121 of the first side plate 12, a screw 18 will pass through the perforation 141 of the lug of the power input element 14 and lock in the tap hole 122 of the first side plate 12 so as to fix the power input element 14 on the first side plate 12.
However, for conforming to the various standards and requests of every kind of power adapter, the power input element 14 of the power adapter should have different designs. Therefore, besides directly mounting the socket on the first side plate 12, the power line 17 can also be directly assembled on the first side plate 12 for avoiding a missing. But, on the presupposition of maintaining the whole frame of the power adapter (i.e. the frame of power adapter become standards) and saving the cost, the assembling method thereof will become difficult. Please refer to FIG. 2, which discloses the assembling difficulty of the conventional power adapter while the power line is directly fixed thereon. Generally, the power line 19 has two ends. One end is a plug 191 for connecting to the external alternating current, and the other end is a connector 192. The connector 192 includes a buffer portion 193, a first flanged ring 194, a second flanged ring 195 and a groove 196, wherein the groove 196 is positioned between the first flanged ring 194 and the second flanged ring 195. However, the cross section of the second flanged ring 195 is usually larger than that of the fixing hole 121 for engaging the groove 196 and sidewall of the fixing hole 121, so that the connector 192 of the power line 19 is difficult to wedge in the fixing hole 121 when assembling. Even if the cross section of the second flanged ring 195 is particularly designed to only slightly larger than that of the fixing hole 121 for wedging the connector 192 therein, the fixing and engaging effect therebetween might be therefore decreased to cause the connector 192 easily to depart therefrom. Thus, on the presupposition of maintaining the whole frame of the power adapter, saving the cost, and assembling easily, directly fixing the power line 19 on the first side plate 12 of the power adapter exists a difficulty when assembling.
Consequently, how to develop a structure of a power line fixing module for directly fixing the power line on the side plate of the power adapter without altering the whole structure of the power adapter, increasing the cost and increasing the assembling difficulty is an issue eager to be solved.